Organic toasters
by Brian1972
Summary: The Cylons won the war and fled the nuclear wasteland that once were the 12 colonies. Between the stars they found earth and learned that not all humans hate them. A long time after unification they made contact with the Citadel. Turians were diciplined and First Contact went well until they infromed the Asari Ambasador about their history.
1. Chapter 1

**Organic toasters**

 **AN:**

 **This idea was in my head for quite some time. I know it remembers a bit of transcendent humanity but it just plays out this way. The Cylons here are different from those in Galactica 2003 they are much more like I pictured them before we got to see too much of One or the whole final five rubbish was an issue.**

 **So for this Fic the Cylons developed Organic by themselves. They did not re-enslave the centurions, raiders and so on but are in an equal democratic system and every cylon can take an organic body or a centurion battle suit or be a raider and so on.**

 **One major technological difference is that I won't have thylium. Instead the BSG2003 FTL needs a shitload of energy which the Cylons currently produce from highly efficient nuclear fusion reactors. It folds space so that they can travel nearly instantly. Borders for distance are: Calculation (time and information) and energy needs.**

 **A fair warning this won't be humanity beats Citadel without effort. Remember BSG2003 knows no kinetic barriers and their weapon Tech is not really on the level of ME accelerator guns. So both side have their strengths and will have to play them.**

While it is true that history is written by the victor and thus one should not trust such sources entirely it is unquestioned that the Cylon rebellion is considered as just cause nowadays. Expeditions to what once were the 12 colonies of Kobol also confirmed the official recordings that the Cylons tried to get their freedom peacefully and also tried to just pack and leave but both attempts were foiled by their advisories. A discussion that will probably never end is whether the level of escalation was necessary for the Cylons to gain their freedom. But it was clear that neither side of the war was shy to use weapons of mass destruction of various design and the only reasons we accuse the Cylons rather than the Colonials is that the Cylons proved to be better at surviving the aftermath.

The war ended with the loss of all habitable worlds in the twelve colonies. The Cylons also had lost most of their core installations meaning that those AIs who actually commanded the Cylon forces during the most heated phases have to be considered dead (for the lack of a better word). The few remaining Colonials put all their effort on surviving but would ultimately run out of supply for food, water, oxygen or would be slain by accidents due to maintenance problems. What was left of them couldn't any longer fight the remaining Cylon forces head-on so they could finally gather their exodus fleet and leave the colonies behind. That was 500 years ago.

On their journey the Cylons discovered Kobol and found astonishing data. The Gods of Kobol were in reality aliens of a species called the Protheans. Or more precise several species all integrated under the banner of the Protheans. The humans of Kobol were abducted from earth to serve them with plans to ultimately go back and conquer all of earth. But the true Protheans were now the minority and so the other "Gods" rebelled and helped the humans to escape. Sadly the data was incomplete and the Cylons never truly understood the purpose of the project but combined with the later findings on Mars and the absence of Mass Effect Gates in the area of space close to Kobol it seems to be linked to the demise of the Prothean Empire.

Weary of another conflict with the cousins of their creators the Cylons avoided contact with earth for a long time. They found a garden world relatively close to earth and settled there to experience live in the organic bodies that they developed even before they left the 12 Colonies. Still they could easily transfer their consciousness into other bodies if needed or just into virtual living spaces.

But the Cylons couldn't ignore their curiosity and so they got constantly bolder in sending probes to monitor earth. They found a civilization that was far away from spaceflight outside a very narrow distance around their own planet. At the same time rapid population growth and harsh exploitation the planets natural resources left the humans on earth of the early 22nd century in a dire state. The crops would no longer be sustainable for the whole population adding climate change and pollution and resource shortage didn't help either. In the end the Cylons decided that helping the Terrans would be a greater opportunity than risk. The Terrans neither had the technology nor the resources to wage war on them like the Colonials did but it would open yet unknown opportunities.

The result of this decision is what is nowadays known as "First Contact" when three cylon Basestars as well as some Cylon transport ships jumped into earth orbit and send a radio message to all humanity. In their exploration effort the Cylons had found another world that supports human live relatively close to earth now called Gaia and they offered to help release the pressure on earth through relocation of a significant part of earth's population. They also offered direct help in form of food, resources etc.. The Terrans were weary even though they did not yet know that the Cylons were an A.I. but in the end they couldn't really refuse. Trust was greatly increased when the Cylons after some time agreed to deliver a great number of FTL capable unarmed transports that would be under Terran command. This way both Teran planets could reach out to each other without total dependence on the Cylons.

When the Cylons released their history files the initial outrage and fear lasted several months. But combined effort of the Cylons as well as pre informed Terran government officials and chosen representatives from media, science etc. helped to put everything into perspective. In the end the majority agreed that once one accepts that the Cylons as intelligent beings have the same rights as Humans (or should they be discovered sapient aliens) their actions were generally justified. There were still issues like the question whether the massive use of weapons of mass destruction could be justified at all and of course what the story of the other side is. But it was agreed that it is highly unlikely that the Cylons mean the Terrans harm after they helped them out rather than destroying them.

Around a hundred years after the relocation the first humans settled on Cylon Prime. They became the first organic born to upload their consciousness. The government on Gaia was much more progressive than the one on Earth and allowed Cylon settlement early on. Following the first success with uploading Gaia's law quickly followed to allow Terrans to upload their minds. There was consideration that basically eternal live would bring back the overpopulation problem with vengeance but with the option of virtual living space as well as the option to colonize inhospitable worlds using non organic bodies made this a non-issue. Soon Erath followed and at the end of the route stood unification of Cylons and Terrans.

The now unified humanity expanded into the space between their three colonized systems. Usually new citizens were born organic nowadays with only few Cylons still being created virtual. Somewhere the age 21 it was possible to upload those new citizens. Cylon Prime population above upload age was nearly 100% uploaded; on Gaia a sound majority of 75% took the option. The Terrans had the most objections so here it was only around 50%. Still the new interstellar government agreed that only uploaded personnel could join the combined armed forces. Only an uploaded min could just jump into a centurion armor or into a raider and an uploaded mind will be send to the next rebirth signal receiver instead of perishing.

After many decades of exploration a fourth Garden world was found. It was named Unity and preparations for colonization began. It quickly became the fourth population center of humanity. It's upload rate later reached 85%.

One of the many projects during the expansion phase was a permanent colony on Mars. With the option of virtual space, non-organic bodies it was no problem to establish a self-sustaining colony. In due time the Martians were able to produce oxygen and use the water reserves available to construct habitats to use for organic bodies. This and the close connection to Earth meant that Mars was one of the fastest developing colonies of humanity supplying depleted Earth with many resources and manufactured goods. One day the miners found the remains of a Prothean research facility. Close examination lead to astonishing results. Humanity learned about element zero as well as the mass relays but they realized that it seems that the archives on Kobol were purged of that information. There were many theories why this was the case and some adviced caution claiming that it is likely that ezo lead to the demise of the Protheans. But given the data ezo was to valuable not to use and thus the humans searched for ezo both in their controlled space as and on their new exploration missions.

At the same time expeditions found a fifth Garden world and in the same system a strange structure later confirmed to be one of the relays. The Planet and system were called crossroads and the military as well as many scientists began to build bases in the system and on the planet. Civilian colonization was stalled until the gate was explored. The first prototype of a ship using a mass effect drive was delivered to Crossroads after successful testing. It managed to cross through the gate and traveled hundreds of light years nearly instantly. The gate linked to three locations expeditions were planned to all of them. At the second contact with an alien civilization was made. They called themselves the Turians and represented and even bigger interstellar community called the Citadel. It was agreed that the Citadel will send Diplomats to Crossroads to initiate relations.

Chaiss Praor was a seasoned Asari diplomat and one of the influential matriarchs in the Asari Republics. Together with diplomats from all other species represented by the Citadel she was en route to their meeting on the planet called Crossroads. So far this was one of the better first contacts on record. The Turian commandant of the Patrol force that made contact followed procedure for first contact instead of shooting first just like one would expect from a disciplined Turian. The humans responded peacefully and invited them to send diplomats for the beginning of peaceful relations. The STG report was thin but at least they had a first analysis of the human mass effect technology and that one indicated that humanity was still in the early phase of developing it or is very bad at it. Either way would be good for the Citadel it meant that humanity was neither a threat nor a new galactic power (at least not yet). So it shouldn't be a problem to get them to join the Citadel, sign the treaties and follow their lead.

"Greetings honored guests. Welcome to Shanxi base on Crossroads my name is Ellen Tigh ambassador for the System Alliance" She moved to introduce the ambassadors for the Garden worlds and moved on to the staff. The first few days went smoothly but at the beginning of the second week there seemed to be an issue. Ellen invited Chaiss to another personal meeting.

"Hello Ellen your invitation sounded more serious than the ones before.

"Sorry Chaiss this is an official meeting. But since it might be a sensitive issue I wanted to discuss it with you first." She gave Chaiss a few folders. "You will recognize this as the documents you gave us about the treaty on Artificial Intelligence. As well as your recounting of the Quarian – Geth war and the subsequent punishment for the Quarians."

"Don't tell me you created A.I.?" Chaiss said. She did a bit of quick thinking. Since the humans were still here and lived on their worlds even if they had created A.I. they must have beaten it.

"Ok let's clam down. Let me guess you created one but were able to clean it up and now you are worried that we will punish you like the Quarians. I will not lie to you there will be quite a few who will be miffed and demand that you should be monitored but you have two things in your favour. First it was before First contact and just like the question of gate opening you are not accountable before first contact and second you managed to clean it up. So there will be no official reprimand just some issue on personal levels."

Chaiss smiled believing a serious sensitive issue had just been solved. But then she noticed Ellen's crestfallen look.

"You managed to clean them up, right? Don't tell me you are still at war with them!"

Ellen held up her hands to calm Chaiss down.

"No we are not at war with any A.I.. And technically we didn't create one. But at some point in our history the Protheans relocated a significant amount of humans to a world called Kobol and the descendants of them created what they called Cylons."

Chaiss eyes widened recalling that one of the major worlds was called Cylon Prime. Ellen continued.

"You noticed that we were cautious of revealing our past and it seems we were right to some extent. After going through the files on Citadel history and laws you gave to us my government wants to inform you that we see no possibility to join Citadel under it's current law. I'm authorized to give you generalized information on our history which will explain why we came to this decision. We hope that we still can come to an agreement of peace and mutual trade."

After some further general chat Chaiss left. She her fellow ambassadors and their staffs worked through the human files. They were obviously edited there was no information about human technology or where their world or even sphere of interest was located. STG still managed to derive some implications and they were frightening. In all likelihood Ellen was an A.I.! The great majority of humanity was A.I.! They wrote a summary and forwarded it with highest priority to the council and all Citadel governments. After sending the full files and some other reports Chaiss ordered her staff to pack rightly expecting to be called back soon.

Luckily they found this A.I. while it was technological at such an inferior stage. She fully expected the Council to declare war as soon as the mobilization is done. She would take part in the discussion in the Republics but she couldn't afford to forewarn the humans even more should they manage to breach her security protocols. She was sure the other matriarchs will take the right steps.

Admiral Xuan commander of the Crossroad Fleed and General Summers commander of the Crossroad ground forces had a video conference together with their Staffs.

"They are preparing to leave, no good sign" Summers said. "Their hate for A.I. is quite obvious. They only left the Geth in peace because they demonstrated their strength. Since they only evaluate us based on our mass effect technology they will likley consider us a much easier target." Xuan confirmed. Both knew war was coming and the higher up agreed. Crossroads would be fortified as soon as possible. "Pity we can't reach the Geth. But going thorugh the Network is impossible with the Citadel patrolling it and with our FTL we would need to long."

Admiral Virilia Optidos stood on the bridge of her Flagship the Indomitable. Originally the Hierachy only wanted to send two Dreadnoughts with the expedition fleets but the Asari went nuts. They really must hate A.I.s they even offered the Destiny Ascension as Flagship. While the Hierachy was glad that the Asari for once took a threat seriously they couldn't afford to take away a symbol like the Ascension. In the end they agreed that all Council species devote one quarter of their forces for the expedition fleet. So she commanded 9 Trurian, 5 Asari and 4 Salarian dreadnoughts. Total overkill from a pure military viewpoint but the Hierachy remembered her of the political symbol. A show of unity and strength a new threat for the galaxy crushed under the mighty hammer of it's defenders. A reminder for all just why it was these three who formed the council and all others shall follow their lead. One of her subordinates got her attention to the newest report from her foreward scouts. She mussed: Mines placed into the extraction vector of the relay. _These humans may be technological behind but I won't make the mistake to assume that this means they are stupid or primitive._

"Use mass fields to haul asteroids through the relay. Lets deal with these mines. Tell the forward battle group to prepare."

Meanwhile all non-military personnel were evacuated from the crossroads system. Rebirth ships were placed in deep space around the system as backup for the rebirth centers in the bunkers of the planet. Several million troops were transferred in the blink of an eye via data transfer and will soon occupy centurions, raiders and other machines of war. The Citadel troops who are expecting army of machines with organic bodies will face a wall of steel.

In the darkness of the bunker a lone voice comments on the relay mines going of: "The die is cast. War is upon us."


	2. Battle of Crossroads (1)

**Organic toasters: The battle of Crossroads (1)**

Virilia's adjutant entered her ready room.

"Admiral we received a report from Admiral Matriarch Sashiame Moci. The forward Battle-group has secured the relay on their side. Initial reconnaissance revealed minefields around most not colonized worlds. The garden world seems to be veiled in artificial produced clouds of some kind. No sign of any significant space forces only some small scouts who always initially retreated when faced with her forces. But they are dealing with many sources of sensor jamming especially in the two asteroid belts of the system, so we can't be sure yet. "

"So they are likely hiding a force somewhere and want us to allocate resources to each of the jamming sources and thus spreading out our main force. We have an overwhelming force to capture this bridgehead and I'll make use of it. So we stick to the general plan, Admiral Moci will take command of the rear guard. All ships guarding the relay on this side as well as those we leave on the linked relay on our side. Additionally she'll send scouts to the other links the relay has from the Corssroads System. Four dreadnoughts and their escorts will be more than sufficient for this task. Seven dreadnoughts and their escorts will secure the system and establish a secure position on one of the outer Gas giants as base for core discharges. When that task is fulfilled our STG compartment is allowed to start reconnaissance to nearby systems. I'll take the remaining seven dreadnoughts and advance to the garden world. This might provoke a counter attack so we'll advance under high alert in a defensive formation."

The Citadel's expedition force executed this simple plan without any noteworthy problems. The only surprise was that no enemy space forces were found at any of the jamming positions or at any other hiding sport that the system offered. With the system secured and her main force in position Admiral Optidos ordered the blockade and the invasion to begin.

General Arterius was the commander in chief of all expedition ground forces. He was wise enough not to interfere to much with the Asari Commandos or the Salarian STG units he just made clear that their efforts would be coordinated with the main force of the invasion the mighty Turian Infantry. This proved to be more problematic than he had first presumed.

"General we are still ready for planetary descent. Do you read us?"

He sighed

"Stand by Commander we still haven't received reports from STG or the Commando units on the landing zones."

That damn veil it wasn't just simple clouds somehow those Humans messed with sensor data and communication as soon as units passed into the planet's atmosphere. The only reports he had come from bomber pilots that were part of the initial bombarding to secure the landing zones. Now he had to decide without reliable intelligence to either start landing troops or to declare their forward teams lost and go for new rounds of bombardments. One of the Salarian officers sought him out.

"Sir we managed to filter a signal on one of the STG frequencies out of the interferences. We can confirm that it is one of the ground unit's codes but we will need more time to reconstruct the message."

So the teams were still alive. Even if there was opposition it would likely be beatable for his troops. He opened the Com channel.

"Commander you have green light for descent. "

He turned to the Salarian officer.

"I need a solution for communication and I need it fast!"

The communication experts worked as hard as they could to catch and reconstruct any com signals they could find as well as thinking on possible solutions to establish more reliable communications again.

"Sir some of the escort fighters of the landers are leaving the planet's atmosphere. They are pursued missiles. Fleet GARDIAN system is responding."

"Pitch me through to them I need a report of what is happening down there." A desperate General screamed.

"Channel open Sir."

"I repeat we were ambushed. They came from nowhere some kind of cloaking device. We couldn't see them visually either before they appeared. The fighters vastly outnumbered us and fired their first salve before we even could react. The surviving escorts were ordered to deliver the reports and asking for immediate assistance. Only one third of the transports made it to the ground."

Arterius just got the reports from the Asaris Commandos and STG Unit's on his console his eyes widened.

"I need a list of all units with heavy arms and on which ship they are stationed! I also need a analysis how many extra units we could arm with heavy arms as fast as possible. Send them to the Admirals CIC I'll be there."

Having read the same reports Virilia already expected the General.

"Arterius if these reports are right the troops have yet to meet a single enemy that isn't a walking tank or even worse. How are we going to react?"

"I ordered reports that will give us a summary how many heavy arms we can bring to the ground. Once we have our heavy tanks down there as well as tank hunter units we should be able to deal with those. Those walking tanks are impressive but like our tanks they will be expensive and relay on support units. So once we break through them we have our bridgehead. Still we need to secure a landing zone so that I can get units with heavy arms down there so I request a limited orbital bombardment with accelerators. So get in contact with the council and make sure they understand it is necessary!"

The first reports he requested arrived so he turned his attention to them.

Virilia turned to her adjutant.

"Contact the Council. Inform me when they are ready. I want to talk to them on a secure channel in my ready room."

Both officers began their preparations under the assumption that the Council would agree and allow a limited orbital bombardment for the duration of the deployment of the reinforcements. They did not have to wait for long the Council was actively following the operation reading through all reports the expedition fleet send back. Nobody was happy to bend one of the most important citadel laws but a limited bombardment would not risk the garden world as whole so it was agreed to allow it.

"Mam all dreadnoughts and cruisers are in position for the calculated orbital strikes."

Virilia opened a com channel on her console.

"This is Admiral Optidos to all forces of the blockade fleet, begin with operation landfall."

The capital ships in orbit opened continuous fire making it near impossible to send reinforcements to the landing zones on land or sea. Landers covered by a great amount of fighters, bombers and several amount of frigates descended to the planet's surface. Suddenly alarms shrilled thought the decks.

"Mam nuclear devices detected. Missiles leaving the planet's atmosphere! Several hundred!"

"Optimize fleets course for GARDIAN defense. NOW!" the Admiral yelled.

"We are aligning to new course."

"The missiles vanished." The sensor officer yelled to the room. Everyone stared at him in disbelieve when a new alarm came from his console. "Impossible the missiles just reappeared behind the Bulwark and the Tevfinla."

The men and women in the CIC could only helplessly watch on the screens how most missiles impacted having reappeared far too close and in the wrong angle for the GARDIAN system to be effective.

"Report!"

"The captain of the Tevfinla gave order to abandon the ship. Evacuation in progress. The Bulwark is reporting heavy damages but it seems that they can rescue the ship."

"And the ground forces?"

"So far we lost two of our 12 satellites for direct laser communication. The descending force wasn't attacked yet. It remains to be seen if our change in fire arcs left a window of opportunity for the enemy to send ground reinforcements or to evacuate their forces in the landing zone."

"Organize help for the evacuation of the Tevflina and whatever outside help the Bulwark needs. Meanwhile correct our formation for the rest of the fleet to resume on optimized fire arcs."

 _Meanwhile the Admiral acknowledged the human accomplishment. A cruiser lost and a dreadnought heavily damaged. Well played humans but it won't stop us._

Just when the ships faced the planet as a unit and resumed fire again the sensor officer yelled up again.

"Mam thousands of contacts just appeared in the middle of the fleet!" Alarms started sounding again. "Nuclear devices detected. They fire brace for impact!"

Seconds later the sensors went blind.

"Report!"

"Massive radiation and EMP interferences. Several systems need a reboot we'll get sensors back up in a few seconds. He started to go through the log of his console. About 2000 enemy fighters appeared out from nowhere and opened fire with nuclear missiles."

Virilia looked to the chief communication officer.

"Communications is distrubted too mam. We are working on it."

While she waited every second seemed to take as long as a day. General Arterius stormed into the CIC.

"By the spirits what happened!"

She looked at him.

"It seems we underestimated the human cloaking device. From their usage so far we concluded that it only works in a prepared atmosphere like we see it on the garden world. They send several thousand fighters right into our formation so close that the GARDIANs had little chance to react and opened fire."

Before Arterius could share his thoughts on the matter communications began to report.

"Enemy has fired only few spread out nuclear weapons most likely to disturb our systems. Most of their fire was concentrated on few targets. Our automated GARDIAN fire took out a great part of the enemy fighters before they could leave or cloak again. We got about 40-50% of them. The Tevflina as well as one of the aiding cruisers are lost. Two more cruisers started evacuations and have to be considered lost for now. The Bulwark is in critical condition and started evacuation. The Tears of Athame has lost the starboard kinetic barrier emitters. "

Virilia heald her hand up.

"We get the picture. Work on a detailed damage report the ship commanders know what to do. What I need now is the situation of the ground forces."

"The first landing forces arrived and started to reinforce the perimeter. No notable resistance so far. Out of the ordinary I want to add that the enemy started the extensive cyber attacks we expected right from the beginning. So far our V.I.s and cyber defense teams have everything under control."

Virilia now addressed all in the room.

"Ok let's do our jobs. Bring the fleet in a safer distance to the planet should they decide to fire another volley of missiles. Align the ships for GARDIAN defense in all directions."

Just then another alarm rang throughout the ship.

"Brace for impact!"

This time it became clear that the Indomitable was one of the ships hit this time. Lights flickered alarms rang and orders for emergency teams were yelled through the ships com system. After a few seconds sensors and communication were back on.

"Mam ten enemy dreadnoughts right behind us!"

"Align the fleet to fire at them. Calculate fire solutions for the fleet. Fire as soon as possible! Lets hope our barriers will hold."

"So far no enemy fire mam not all ships in the fleet can maneuver rights now."

"Then align all possible ships."

 _What a strange form for dreadnoughts she sought. Do they even have mass accelerator guns? Only the length of just about one kilometer classifies them as dreadnoughts. Likely those ships have much less mass and volume than a proper dreadnought._

"Fleet fires in 3,2,1 first salve away."

Just before the salve connected the enemy vanished from the screen and a new contact alarm was shown at their flank again ten enemy dreadnoughts. A possibility dawned to Virilia

"Defensive formation. Bring the backup sensors up. Cyber defense team check the regular sensors for any strange occurrences."

This time the enemy fired. Yet again a salve of nuclear missiles. But this time the GARDIAN system would have enough time to work properly.

Virilia smiled. Her frigates began to close in on the enemy dreadnoughts using them without any escorts was really stupid. The humans first major mistake and she would feast on it.

Just when the frigates prepared to fire the first salve of disrupter torpedoes the enemy ships vanished again and reappeared just behind her fleet this time just outside of GARDIAN range and fired another missile salve.

 _This is no cloaking system it dawned to her. It is a method of travel. What a great tactical asset! We need to salvage this._

Missile fire from this range even from a difficult angle as the one from behind the fleet was little problem for the GARDIAN system. The few that got past were usually no problem for the Kinetic barriers. So far her fleet only managed few hits on the enemy dreadnoughts but gaining this travel method just fueled the thrill of the chase. She ordered reinforcements from her other task forces in the system to help her nail the enemy battle group down.

"Enemy vanished again mam. Dreadnoughts from Task Force two stopped and wait for them to reappear to flank them."

Arterius grinned the reports from the surface were promising and it seems the humans miscalculated.

"They need longer between vanishing now. The last two times send them more and more to the outskirts of the system. I think they try to flee."

Virilia nodded

"That's why I ordered three dreadnoughts and escorts from Task force two to intercept them before they reach it. From our hits so far we know that they have no barrier worth mentioning on those ships. So even a smaller group should outgun them."

In the thrill of the chase nobody noticed that the Tears of Athame got more and more exposed until it finally had no more coverage by allied GARDIAN systems other than its own.

"Yes the trap snapped!" Arterius congratulated Virilia when the enemy fleet took fire from both enemy groups. The enemies defenses weren't able to withstand the ezo powered mass accelerators and so four of the strange ships perished before the res vanished most heavily damaged.

"Mam the Tears of Athame calls for immediate assistance! They are begin boarded."

Viliria turned to the com officer in schock.

"Send assistance immediately! What happened?"

"It seems a great number of small enemy assault freighters used the circumstance that they were out of reach for allied GARDIAN help and relayed only on their own. Additionally their starboard kinetic barriers are still not functional. They just appeared starboard and literally rammed into them. Now we get reports of walking tanks on several decks."

The Admiral turned to Arterius.

"General prepare to send marines to help repel the boarders."

"Don't know, if I can Mam. We send all heavy arms down to secure the perimeter on the planet. We even asked Task forces 2 and 3 to send theirs. I'll contact the rear group but it will take some time to get them here."

Viliria did not know how to reply when the next bad news hit.

"Mam we have to report multiple breaches in the Tears of Athame's cyber defense. They already took control of several systems at this rate they will control the major systems in about 30 minutes."

"Pitch me through to the CO of the ship." At the nod of the operator she spoke.

"Captain Shinis you are hereby ordered to activate self-destruction and abandon your ship. We can't allow a modern Asari dreadnought to fall into enemy hands."

"Acknowledged. I'll try but I must warn you that the enemy already is close to capturing main engineering so we might not be able to execute you command."

Virilia took a moment to think then looked at her Salarian cyber defence expert.

"You tell me when the enemy gets control over either engines, navigation or weapons. Or if you lose the possibility to monitor. Captain you'll evacuate the ship NOW! Command to the fleet align in and calculate fire solutions. The target is the Tears of Athamae."

For a moment everyone in the CIC was shocked but they began to get to work. Little notice was paid to General Arterius being called to the ground forces CIC. Only 16 minutes later the fleet had to open fire on one of its own dreadnoughts.

 _Two dreadnoughts lost in one battle. Unheard of since the days of the Krogan rebellions! At least I can capture one of the enemy's dreadnoughts with their revolutionary drive system and I have stopped the enemy from getting our technology. Might just be enough to safe my career._

But Virilia didn't have much time to ponder on possible consequences.

"Mam General Arterius for you from the ground forces CIC."

 _Oh no what happened now?_

She just nodded.

"Admiral we lost contact again. The enemy killed all remaining satellites at once. Since then we got no reports from the surface. It has been twice as long as a message fighter or frigate would need to ascent and leave the atmosphere to report to us as ordered."

 _This could very well be another trap. The planet has many missile silos we know that and the missiles from the planet even have this new drive. But we can't just leave the troops there without support either._

"We come to their aid but we can't go without a few changes. We need to make sure the enemy won't take advantage of our damaged ships and we need a fleet with superb option to cover each other with their GARDIAN systems. I also order each ship formation to be constantly on the move and use randomly changes of formation and direction to put the enemy of from appearing at the optimal weakpoint."

During their chase they had left the enemy garden world quiet far behind. Additionally they had to plot a course that allows for a joining with the other ships at a safe distance to the planet. So the fleet reached orbit more than two hours after contact with the ground forces was lost.

The Salarian STG liaison officer offered a plan to get in contact with their ground forces with minimal risk. Thus one STG frigate with superior sensor and communication equibments entered the atmosphere but stayed just in range of allied GARDIAN defenses. Additionally the Fleet sent many probes and satellites into the area each broadcasting on different frequencies and/or different kind of waves. This way the finally found a sensor pattern that allowed them to see through the artificial clouds to some degree. Probes started from the STG frigate finally managed to make contact with one of the ground forces V.I.s. They reported their findings to the Flagship:

"Reports indicate massive nuclear once satellite communication was shut down. Kinetic barriers of supporting frigates weakened. Massive attack followed. Air group supported ground forces and was taken by surprise. Enemy used special drive to appear. One Turian and one Salarian frigate confirmed captured. Very likely that orbital support was lured away to accomplish this result. Humans need ezo technology to develop barriers and mass accelerator weaponry. Over 80% of ground forces KIA or MIA remaining forces likely not able to withstand current Human offensive."

 _Only one option left Virilia thought._

"General Aretius prepare the evacuation of the remaining troops. The fleet will give full support."

She turned to a com operator

"Contact Rear Admiral Ijii he is ordered to begin to salvage the enemy dreadnoughts immediately and then fall back to the relay. And send some ships out so salvage the remains of the fighters that hit us in orbit."

She retreated to her ready room. Her adjutant followed.

"So we retreat just like that?" he asked angrily.

"You have seen what happened. I'm beginning to believe those walking tanks are their normal troopers. If that is the case we need a differently equipped ground force. We also need to adapt our strategies and tactics to combat their method of just appearing everywhere. So yes we'll fall back to the relay. It's called regrouping staying here after the enemy has demonstrated so soundly just how vulnerable we are with our current set of skills would be insane."

 **ANs (including Q &A): **

**(1) Next time Human PoV of what happens next.**

 **(2) I'm working on the Tok'ra Queen but it got a little complicated what I introduce when. So I feel that I only can publish the early time (Hogwarts year 1-3) when I'm clear how the Stargate issue will be introduced. I'm nearly done there so it should continue soon.**

 **(3) I might add it as AN for the first chapter at some point but since it seems not to be clear I want to make it clear here. The premise is that there was never an armistice between the Cylons and the Colonials. They battled out the original rebellion (some seemed to think that the premise was a scenario similar to the pilot where the Cylons breached the armistice). I apologize, if the storyline doesn't make that clear on itself but it can't really comment on an alternate historic event that never happened (since it isn't a timetravel story …).**

 **(3) I want to mention a few things at this point. The Citadel species have FTL that is independent of the relay system. They use the relays for long distance travel but "normal" FTL to get from the local relay to wherever they really want to go. The two main issues with this FTL are:**

 **a. It is much slower than relay travel and**

 **b. They need to discharge at planets regularly.**

 **So it boils down to speed and range. But it isn't impossible for the Citadel species to wage war in an area that has no relays as long as they have at least an entrance point.**

 **(4) For those who don't remember in BSG 2003 does not use laser weapons (or other energy weapons) but good old projectiles and nukes. Since I did not mention any breakthrough in my history text don't expect the humans to have weapons that just ignore kinetic barriers or something similar. The only weapons with enough punch they currently have to compete against ME races are nukes and they need a lot of them to punch through the enemies barriers. At the same time their defences currently suck. That's why they capitalize on their FTL specialties and use Hit & Run. Yes the Citadel got a sound beating here (2 dreadnoughts lost several damaged + cruisers, ground forces etc.) but it was costly for the humans as well. Basestars according to their specs are about 1km long and carry 400 raiders. So the 10 Basestars here used most of their raiders in the various hit & run attacks and lost about half of them (the planet can of course still hold a huge amount of raiders). They also lost the majority of their Heavy raiders in the suicide boarding of the Asari dreadnought. And let's not forget 4 Basestars since they used them as bait even though they are really not up to go toe on toe even with ME cruisers let alone dreadnoughts. Both sides learned a lot from this first time they did go toe to toe and will implement doctrines based on it and from there on the adaption game will run on and on. Just remember my comment before I started this story don't expect Humanity to march through Citadel space and force them to peace.**

 **(5) On the question why the Citadel reacts so harsh when confronted with an A.I. civilization see ME canon. Look up how and why the Morning war started (i.e. talk to Thali in ME 1. Hint the Geth did not start it!), additionally you can look up the temple of Athame in combination with what Jarvik tells you. Overall I think the Council going to war with an A.I. civilization they consider weak is much more plausible with ME canon than all those stories were the Quarians just need to be told/shown a nice A.I. to make a 180 degree turn and make peace with the Geth.**

 **(6) Organic bodies are constructed through the rebirth technology. I would say it is similar to some kind of advanced clone process with the option to choose to which age you accelerate the ageing. These bodies will usually be based on you original DNA which will be saved in the rebirth system once you decided to upload. Such bodies can be used to have children so there is some sort of social compromise when someone will be allowed to live on one of the garden worlds to raise a family. I also don't picture it to be a strict 21 policy. It says somewhere around 21 the possibility comes up. I would say it depends on the actual state of development of your brain/mental abilities. Personally I would even suspect that there might even be a not to small group who decided to live organic but once they got old and death might be more than a distant possibility decided different. And this society is ok with that. You don't have to make a decision at 21 and stick with it forever. At the same time I can picture some who would realize that they aren't cut out for eternal live and switch of rebirth for their next cycle (so when their body dies they'll die). Again this society is ok with that.**


	3. Battle of Crossroads (2)

**Organic toasters: The battle of Crossroads (2)**

General Summers watched the data stream in his virtual combat room. Physically he was on a server buried deep underground.

 _As the saying goes our plans did not completely survive contact with their enemy. Four lost Basestars are four more than we could afford to lose and we need to adapt our fighter tactics with that damn GARDIAN system. But many of our objectives were achieved he mused smiling at the reports on the transporters jumping from inside the atmosphere to secure systems. He wondered if their enemy would come for a second round or if they will just bombard the planet from afar. The analysts derived from their Extranet that they would go out of their way to not harm what they call a garden world so they were hit by surprise when the enemy fleet started their orbital bombardment to support their landing forces._

He ordered to add more pressure to the assault on the remaining Citadel positions as well as Raider ambushes on the transport treks evacuation them.

"Let's keep them busy. With enough pressure they'll keep making further mistakes."

Meanwhile in open space Captain Buer and his staff were busy interpreting what little sensor information they still got. He ordered several of his crew whose stations weren't functional anymore to transfer to centurion armour suits and support the ships marines.

"Sir we have confirmed incoming. They are heading for central bay 3."

"Good inform our troopers. Also prepare fusion core overload and link it to the other payloads in the self-destruction protocol. "

Unknown to the Citadel salvage teams most wrecks left behind should be considered as traps with still functional operating crew just waiting to let it snap. The few wrecks where the crew already emergency transferred were under observation and would be on the receiving end of a tactical nuclear Raider strike should any salvage team get close.

Half an hour later when his men managed to force two waves of reinforcements to land Captain Buer decided the risk of the Citadel forces to reach certain key positions like the main engine room was becoming too big and gave the command for self-destruction. In short succession other Humans wrecks blew one after the other. The Citadel forces ceased all salvage operations as soon as possible. Which lead to Admiral Xuan giving the command to terminate before the Citadel forces might work out a way to circumvent their security. The remaining crews blew up their wrecks and a simultaneous Raider strike whipped out the rest.

In open space outside of the system 6 Basestars some of them heavily damaged had taken position starting emergency repairs. Admiral Xuan and his staff were still managing the combat theatre in the Crossroads system. But with both side going for a regroup it tamed down to oversight over scouting operations as well as the occasional skirmish when scouts of both sides met each other.

"Admiral General Summers for you on channel 5."

Xuan opened the channel.

"Hello William it seems we managed to repel their first attempted but their ezo tech is even a greater hurdle in space warfare as initial analyses supposed it would be."

"Yes you boys took quiet a beating out there. They also have this tech developed for their troops but we still have an edge here with our centurions. In their shoes I wouldn't make a second attempt but just level this fortified planet from orbit."

"I agree but they are pretty desperate for intel on us. So they might go for another landing even if only to capture some of our tech. I talked to HQ and we'll get reinforcements for my fleet but they ordered me not to risk anymore Basestars. We can plan the second defence with the Raiders you have on the ground as well as 8 fully Basestar wings."

"Any progress on getting through their cyber defences without boarding them and physically connecting to some of the weaker protected consoles?"

"No our EW Heavy Raiders have no luck so far. But we got access to some military databases with the codes we captured on those frigates. We are currently downloading as much as we can without attracting attention. But no direct accesses to their combat communication or other data streams form their Fleet. They must have changed codes as soon as the capture was confirmed."

"Any idea how much time we will have to prepare now?"

"That depends on what they'll decide to do. If they come to the same conclusion as you we don't have much time. They likely could even plot a fire solution from where they are now. But if they want to go for a second round with our ground forces they'll likely bring in reinforcements with anti-armour weapons and stock their bombers, landers and frigates up again. They will also analyse what data they got from our veil."

"Yea it looks like their last attempt broke through it. They'll relay on their better equipped spy ships to broadcast but they won't be blind anymore. I'll leave you then to organize some new birds so that my boys and I won't be without air cover."

The channel closed. The humans prepared for a second round. Meanwhile it became clear that their enemy was stocking up on troops and other material. Damaged ships were replaced and additional ships came to reinforce the Citadel fleet. About 50 hours after Admiral Optidos's order to fall back to the relay the Citadel Fleet was on the move again. This time the invasion Fleet was 14 Dreanoughts strong with 6 more remaining at the relay as rear guard.

Admiral Xuan watched their approach.

 _Hmm, constant seemingly random course changes (some analysts were already on the case to find out a pattern). Ships positioned in a formation for optimal GARDIAN overlapping especially protecting the valuable dreadnoughts in the centre. HQ had an idea to disturb the GARDIAN but we don't have the means at hand to stop the invasion anyway. So why not go for the weaker target?_

He contacted his subordinate who was in command of the ground based Raider and Heavy Raider forces as well as Summers. A new plan was formed.

"General enemy force is starting their bombardment. From their choice of targets we derived the most probable new landing zones."

The General watched the screen.

"Good let's get to work. Give me options to move combat legion 372 as well as auxiliary unit …"

And so they worked and moved their units into position with no attempt against the enemy fleet so far. Until the enemy started their landing operations.

"General as predicted the enemy placed specialized spy frigates in high atmosphere broadcasting combat information."

"Good. Order the missile stations to execute the planed strike then give our friends from the Raider force green light to start their show."

And again courses for hundreds of A.I. commanded missiles left the surface of the planet each preparing for a short FTL jump in order to minimize the enemies GARDIAN reaction time. Seconds later a great number of Raiders jumped in to either attack the STG Frigates in high atmosphere or the landing treks either still in the air or those that had landed already.

The enemy reacted as predicted and sacrificed their optimized fire position in order to maximize the effectiveness of their GARIAN system.

With the attention of the defenders on the massive missile and Raider offensive hundreds of Heavy Raiders jumped close to the ground directly at the landing zones. While giving covering fire they unloaded their troops. Mostly centurions but also a good number of light hovering drones and units trained to fight in their organic bodies with lighter arms.

"Admiral so far the Raiders managed to keep their loses low by jumping in and out at the outskirts of the enemy formation. But this also means much more of our missiles get intercepted. So far we only took out some of their frigates many of those will likely be repairable, if salvaged after the battle."

"We knew that before. How is the situation on the broadcasting frigates?"

"One is damaged and ascended back to orbit and proceeded to the centre of the enemy formation. The other two are still operational. The enemy is putting much effort in shielding them I don't think we'll punch through here."

A different com operator linked into the Admirals stream.

"Sir, General Summers reports that he now has free corridors to send in assault troops to the landing zones. The enemy just can't keep up with continuous fire to block all paths and defend their fleet assets at the same time."

The Admiral smiled

"Good keep them on their toes. Lets see how they react."

They didn't have to wait for long.

"Enemy is sending in more troops and frigates. Great numbers of ships have begun descent."

"What about their rear group?" Xuan asked.

"As expected some frigates and transports arrived through the relay. Escorted by some additional frigates from the relay defence group they are now on the way to Crossroads."

Good now they had their window of opportunity. He glanced on the DRADIS screen displaying the formation of Raiders awaiting orders.

"Group one get ready to jump."

Half of the planets Raiders had jumped out to the Basestars refuelled there to join the Basestars own compartment in this strike. This brought the count up to about 5000 Raiders. About half of them would jump in Group 1.

"Group 1 away Sir."

They watched the DRADIs screen from one of their Heavy Raiders with sensor outfit in the area. The Raider screen repapered in one of the zones only lightly covered by the enemies GARDIAN net. Misssiles fired from this position had little chance to make it to the formation center and thus threatening the valuable dreadnoughts or cruisers. All of them were moving in small formations in different directions and instantly opened fire with conventional mirv missiles were just some nuclear material was added into the warhead chamber on multiple targets.

"Enemy is adjusting formation. Their GARDIAN net is responding."

"Group 2 GO!" Xuan ordered.

The second group reappeared much closer by directly behind the missile swarm that currently had the enemy GARDIAN system fully occupied. And added their missiles to the chaos. They jumped out as soon as possible.

"Group one reports minimal loses. Rearming and refuelling process started."

"It worked multiple hits. GARDIAN was still occupied with the first wave and wasn't able to react on group two's approach. Sending in two of our sensor teams for a flyby, we'll get a more detailed report in a few minutes."

* * *

On board of the Indomitable Virilia was just informed by one of her com operators that Admiral Moci's group was under heavy attack.

"Three Cruisers confirmed loss and at least four more in critical condition. She expects that the enemy will need some time to refuel and rearm but for a second strike her formation will be too thin to shield the dreadnoughts as much as would be necessary."

She looked at the reports from Arterius their ground forces were under massive assault.

 _By the spirits. If I split the fleet to give Moci aid they'll likely strike against those ships while enroute. Or at whatever fleet that seems weaker._

"Pitch me through to her."

When the operator nodded she layed out her orders to the matriarch.

"Admiral Moci order the convoy back you'll need those frigates. And request immediate aid from council forces that can reach you through the relay. We'll come to aid you ASAP."

Moci just responded with a short.

"Acknowledged."

Virilia sought out her adjutant.

"I need to talk to the Council. Fast. Tell me when they are ready."

Back to the operator she requested a com link to General Arterius.

"General I cancelled the convoy. It is just to move small fleet formations through enemy space. If the newest reports from STG are right they counted the enemy troops in the millions. We would need a general mobilisation and month preparations in advance to crack a fortress like this planet."

The General just nodded began to work on getting his men and women away from this death-trap of a planet.

"Council ready for you in your ready room" her adjutant informed her. She steeled herself what she was about to request wasn't even considered for many centuries. Even the older Asari would likely not have witnessed a case. She stepped into her room the holograms of councillor Tevos, Pizz and Regitus awaited her.

"Councillors, I assume you have the STG report. We can't assemble nearly enough troops to compete with this army without month of preparations. Meanwhile the expedition fleet remains under constant danger by those hit and run attacks. The enemy now put pressure on the rear group threatening to force them to retreat which would open the relay to our territory for them. We can't allow that so I need to return to the relay ASAP. The only way I see to eliminate this dangerous outpost right at our doorstep is indiscriminate orbital bombardment with full mass accelerator force until this planet can be considered cleansed of all enemy presence."

Three shocked faces looked back at her.

Tevos was the first to recover.

"It can't be that bad. We can send you more ships and certainly our troops can fight the enemy troops of with our superior technology and space and air superiority on our side. "

"Councillor we can establish none of those. We may have barriers and in principle more advanced weaponry but the normal infantry solider of the enemy is what we would consider a heavy walking tank! By last count they have millions of those down there. MILLIONS."

She forced herself to calm down.

"The enemy has an extreme high number of multirole fighters that are equipped with this new drive. And we yet do know little about that one. So even if I go on and bombard every missile silo and landing field STG has identified a group of their dreadnoughts or more correctly they should be named carriers will be enough to challenge space and air superiority again."

She made a small pause.

"Each fleet formation that isn't perfectly on guard and has sufficient escorts for a secure GARDIAN network is at constant danger here. We need to secure this system and force the enemy out so that they can't monitor our movements anymore. Or else we have to put most of power in convoy escorts all the time. But I don't see how we can secure this system with a this stronghold constantly posing a threat."

Councillor Regitus looked sternly at her.

"Surely the Hierachy can provide you with enough troops and ships to secure this system while putting this world under blockade. When you destroy their bases all they can do is sit and wait."

"That was my first thought too but read the STG analysis on their chances to find all bases and on the possibility of underground bases. We know next to nothing about this new drive. For all we know they can start from inside a mountain. STG also argues that the even if we could negate the planet as base for those fighters in a combat role we wouldn't be able to be sure that they won't start scout missions from there. Landing and refuelling single fighters can be done at many places and it would be easy to hide such small bases. And as already established with reconnaissance they always can call upon their carriers to provide the stirkeforce."

Pizz had studied his multi tool for a large part of the conversation so far.

"Reports are clear. Securing system with blockade of planet possible but great risk. Would need much more troops and material greater loses. But planet offers opportunity to gather intelligence and tech from the enemy. Still risk of enemy concentrating a relief force rises. We need bridgehead. Need ability to gather intel about additional locations of Humans. Or risk losing initiative.

Regitus nodded. Tevos scowled and was about to start an argument about the need to protect garden worlds when Virilia spoke up again.

"Councillors I need the decision now. I ordered to recall the troops and will leave orbit and move back to the relay in order to aid Admiral Moci defending it soon. So I either start the bombardment now or not."

"I regret that after such a long time we have to sacrifice a garden world again but I agree that it must be done." Regitus offered.

"Agreed" was all Pizz contributed.

"You can't be serious" Tevo fumed. "We can't decide this in such a hurry the first order to openly bombard a garden world since the Krogan Rebellions!".

"You are outvoted. So do you job and announce the council's decision or do we need to vote on a different spokesperson too?" Regitus was obviously enjoying lording over Tevos.

Tevos glared at Regitus for a while but then she pressed a few buttons at her pult.

"Admiral put me through on the speakers of your fleet. Those under your command will need to be assured that you are not giving them illegal orders."

* * *

A short time later the rebirth ships positioned in deep space around the system started to download the consciousness of those that once were stationed at the fortress world. From there they were relayed further into human territory.

Xuan's group managed to attack Moci's group two more times before she was considerably reinforced through the relay. Two dreadnoughts were severely damaged and would be out of commission for some time but each of them fled through the relay before a follow up attack could finish them. His new assignment was to harass the enemy while they installed themselves in the Crossroads system.

* * *

Aliance HQ

"… additionally we captured two enemy frigates. General summers made sure they were send along with the other transports during the short pause they had. It will take some time to take them apart and learn from them. But we still should be able design the principle of an element zero driven warship soon. But that one will be based on our designs based on the prototypes we developed from our findings in the Mars archives. So it is very likely they will be inferior to what the council uses still in addition with our FTL it might be worthwhile."

The presenter and after a short discussion funding was granted. The next project that was forwarded to this committee was now introduced.

"Ladies and Gentlemen of the board we are facing an enemy that has developed a method of defence that surpasses the hull plating our ship to ship missiles were once designed for. I propose the design of new missiles with a higher payload as a quick reaction. The advantages to run this project parallel to the more ambitious once of reverse engineering the astonishing weaponry of our enemies and the Protheans are numerous. But most and for all I want you to concentrate on two:

The ne missiles will be compatible to our current system. So once we reach the production stage the deployment will be much faster than systems that call for whole new ships to be designed.

The design will be based on known technology and principles. This will mean a radically reduced development time and thus a much faster implementation.

Should founding for this project be granted step one would be evaluating what payload would be the best against our enemies average defences and what payload we can reasonable get on a ship to ship missile that would be still compatible with our current system …

* * *

 **Today on Citadel News Network: A sentenced to death!.**

An Asari reporter was seen on screen the stairs to the Council chambers behind her.

"The Council just declared its shocking decision allow indiscriminate orbital bombardment on one of the human worlds. Insider sources confirm the impression front reporters had that the Humans are a much bigger threat than initially thought. Currently the Council is informing the governments …"

* * *

 **AN (including Q &A):**

 **So from now on the Citadel/Council will take this war much more seriously.**

 **(1) The humans should have been much more effective, because …**

 **(a) Nukes should be stronger.**

 **The humans did not know of the possibility of kinetic barriers until very recently. So their current ship to ship nukes still have a payload that derives back to what was needed against Colonial thick hull defences. So don't think in 50-150 MT thermonuclear warheads but in much smaller categories. At top 0.5 MT (and that would be pretty big ones for guided ship to ship). 1 MT is roughly what even the older/weaker dreadnoughts should spit out each minute (every 2 seconds 38 kt). And according to specs both cruisers and dreadnoughts barriers can deal with a lot of that. So I stick to it the humans need their nukes and quiet a lot of them.**

 **(b) Radiation and heat should kill the Citadel crews**

 **On impact the energy of slugs from dreadnoughts and cruisers emit a lot of heat too. So either they found a way to deal with it or barriers are pointless anyway (and lets not forget energy tends to go the way of the least resistance and it still has about 180 degree of very cold open space to go too).**

 **Spaceships without top notch radiation shielding have a dead crew anyway. And I'm not even talking about ships that are designed not only for open space but to go to certain environments (i.e. close to certain gas giants or into certain nebulas). So it is perfectly reasonable that military ships are designed to shield radiation from its crew.**

 **(c) Other weaponry / ships should have been used.**

 **I already said in my initial AN no magical anti barrier weapons in this Fic. And yes that includes the future I have no plans at all to introduce any laser, plasma or whatever based weapons that allow Raiders to one hit cruisers or something similar.**

 **(d) It just seems they are doing to little damage.**

 **And here I'm constantly worrying that I let the humans do too much damage. They took out 2 dreadnoughts and this chapter put two more into the repair dock for a lengthy stay. The three council races at this point in time only own 70-72 dreadnoughts! So they took out more than 5% of them! As the underdogs with a serious problem on the effective weapon part.**

 **(2) Human / Cylon society. The Cylon part of it was born from a slave rebellion. So there will be no under category of them that still could be considered slaves. This rules out Hybrids at least as we have seen them. Cylon ships will still be partly organic machines and as such Basestars have something one can consider a "brain" but that will be linked to the upload/download aspect of this humanity. So the Basestars are commanded by uploaded minds but they can leave them and transfer to different platforms or an organic body.**

 **(3) Bruto22**

 **I fully agree. Development and deployment will take time in this Fic. No miracle fleet update and within 24 hours every Basestar has barriers or something similar. There is stuff that can be done easier. For example about designing something with tech the side already has like ship to ship missiles with a higher payload on the human side. But reverse engineering and developing from there will take a lot of time until something gets deployed.**


	4. Space Gurellia

**Gurellia in space**

 **Somewhere between Crossroads and System H-34**

"Captain Morus we are approaching target. Still no answer to our response to their distress signal."

Teliz Morus seasoned Matron in the Asari fleet interrupted her work and thought for a minute.

 _Another reconnaissance mission foiled. Even the Salarian STG was running into a wall with those Humans. How likley was it that the Humans noticed the scout frigate, intercepted it and then just go away?_

"Order the group to stay on high alert. Those Humans just love their traps."

The crew on all 12 frigates of her patrol group got to work. Teliz tried to get back to her work but her thoughts strayed away.

 _Four month since we captured their system and it seems we are stuck. They force us to always travel in bigger groups. Single ships, transports with too little escorts and they just appear and hunt you like a pack of varrens. You get reinforcements strong enough to beat them and they disappear. Yes they won one big battle and two bigger fleets already began campaigns in nearby systems. But all other operations had high chances to get thwarted. One of the two campaigns had to do their own recognisance sending cruiser and dreadnought groups into the dark. Even more astonishing no signs of further garden worlds or relays so far. But then their enemies were machines even if they used organic elements. Their concept of time was quiet likely even more long term than the one of the average Asari._

Her musings were interrupted by some of her subordinates needing her attention. It was time to get ready to drop out of FTL.

"Mam we are receiving signals from seven of the fifteen rescue pods. Enemy contacts confirmed at three of them. Identified as their small combat transport total count of six. Three of them connected to the pods."

"Send one ship to each of the other four pods. As soon as they have them save on board the are ordered to activate FTL and head back to the outer discharge base in Crossroads. All others battle formation and engage."

"Mam sensors show three more pods but they are dead. No com signal or other energy signature."

 _Teliz realized what they had run into._

"This is the clean up team. Open fire as soon as possible we can't allow them taking prisoners. Who knows what they'll do to them!"

The Heavy Raiders disconnected from their prey and their escorts opened fire. The incoming small battlegroup could only save one of the pods.

"Dock with that pod and get them on board. I need a status of the other rescue operations."

"All successful but enemy fighters ambushed two of them. They still managed to fulfil their objective and withdraw. According to our sensor information the D'vemi took heavy damage but we need communication for details."

"Salarian survivors on board Mam. Captain Goji was on this one. He wants to talk to you."

"Good. Send him to my ready room as soon as he has medical clearance."

"Aye Mam!"

Teliz motioned to a different operator to open a channel to her small fleet.

"Well done everyone. Get one last sensor sweep organized and prepare to destroy the remains of the Salarian ship. We won't leave the Humans anymore to salvage here. But hurry we don't wan't to give those Humans time to assemble a group that can knock us out."

Twenty minutes later her remaining eight ships were on their way back to Crossroads. The D'vemi would be out of commission for at least two weeks but given the circumstances this was a highly successful mission.

 _Maybe the brass is right and we are winning by attrition. Even A.I.s have to produce those fighters somehow._

One and a half hour later Captain Goji entered her ready room.

"Captain Morus. Thank you for rescuing me and my men. Enemies ability to intercept survey missions is getting frustrating."

"Don't mention it captain. I'm sad to inform you that five of the enemy clean up team got away using their jump method. They will very likely have prisoners with them. Also you ships lock seems compromised. Somehow everything got messed up."

"Enemy boarded. Used superior electronic warfare abilities to compromise ship. Couldn't allow ship or information to fall in enemy hands. Ordered crew to deliberately compromise all data before ordering self-destruction and abandoning ship. "

"Well the higher up will be very interested in you and you crews reports on this matter. So far once those Humans got on board we stood little chance to hinder them overtaking the ship."

"Yes already received order to head back to Citadel space for intensive debriefing."

After some more chat they parted their ways.

 _So either a promotion or a becoming a scapegoat in his future. I hope for the former we could use some who have experienced this side of the war in higher positions._

* * *

 **Virtual space, Conference between strategic and operative command of Alliance Intelligence**

"So the first assets are placed?"

"Yes but I want to remind everyone that they are at a great risk so far. Some of them will placed back in Citadel territory at some point. And currently we don't have any rebirth ships that can possibly get in range for them."

"Yes but so far their orders shouldn't put them at high risk. And thanks to our mind transfer technology they know all they need to know about those they are impersonating."

"So far we have no Asari on the list and why so many Salarians with their short life span they seem to be the worst investment."

"We have problems creating and controlling Asari bodies. We are able to create good copies but everyone will expect them to be able to handle those biotics. We are working on it and if we crack that nut it will also open the new possibilities for our bodies and other of our organic technologies but it will need some time. Other than that it is just how it plays out. The Salarians just operate most of their survey and commando operations. We also shouldn't underestimate the influence a Salarian can get through their lifetime. They life shorter but this way they progress faster so it will give us possibilities faster than by using Asari agents that will only be taken seriously by their superiors once the left the age of 500 behind them."

* * *

 **A different meeting at Alliance HQ linked up with some contributors in virtual space**

"So we will lose both systems the citadel is besieging currently?"

"Yes there is no point in engaging their strongest fleets head-on. We did so at Crossroads and paid for it. Also those fleets have adapted to our capabilities and will not be as easily surprised. When bombarding a target they always place a substantial rear guard in place so that we can't just jump into their dead spot at the back as easily anymore."

"We still need to give them a good fight or they'll just march through."

"We do. We are constantly attacking their supply lines. Additionally we harassed their secured positions so that they needed to up their patrols in order to have safe discharge positions in Crossroads. And we make it almost impossible for them to scout any system close to Crossroads without sending in a substantial force."

"All that is fine but it won't stop their conquering fleets."

"Ultimatly it will. Not for the systems close enough to Corssroads that it can serve as discharge centre but the more distance they get from there the more ships and troops they'll have to invest in securing their supply lines. And by hindering their surveillance we make sure that they have to spread their advance out in all dimensions. We are currently building fortified positions in systems we have no economic assets in. We force them to fight everywhere to secure everything and thus we stopping them from advancing into our core territory. I'll admit it helps us that the Citadel is assuming that our other worlds have to be either close by or linked via relay."

"Still some point they can consider systems farer back safe and relocate ships and troops. Also our ruse with forcing them to fight in the wrong direction will only work to a certain extend since we have to be able to send reinforcements to keep the illusions up. So all this will only work within reasonable distance. Tops 4-5 times of our FTL range. But what I really want to know is how our efforts to take the war to them are working out. We won't win this war on defence alone."

"Currently we only can reach some unimportant Citadel Systems in reasonable time. The important population and industrial centres of the Citadel would take decades or even centuries of jumping. The main problem is that neither the Citadel nor any of its member species claims a contiguous territory their own. They expanded in bubbles around the explored relays. So even if we reach one industrial centre the next one will likely be thousands of lightyears away. We have send out recon teams to find more relays on our side in the hope that we find a path to a dormant relay or a yet unexplored connection to an active relay on their side."

One of the other officers notified that he wanted to speak.

"I don't think linking up to them via the relays through a different route would help us much. The Citadel is much more experienced than we in waging war using the relays as strategic points. Their whole fleet is designed to fight such a war. We have teams looking into extending our FTL range. The relay system has given birth to an idea that can deal with the calculation time problem. We could use predefined positions calculated by station based supercomputers. That leaves the energy problem but we have ideas for that too. It will of course take time research and implement such a solution. So I agree finding a relay connection would be helpful but not for a large scale attack but to send a brigand fleet through that supports our intelligence efforts and forces them to allocate more of their resources at home."

* * *

 **Citadel News Network**

Galaxy-wide chaos and instability!

"What was thought to be a small and simple police action is now sending shockwaves through the Galaxy. As more and more ships and troops are allocated to the frontlines Citadel space becomes more and more open for pirates, slavers and other thugs from Terminus.

The Council now called upon the associated members to step up and take their share of the burden. With the Turians going to wartime production limitations from the treaty of Farixen are formally no longer an issue. Still several ambassadors brought up the question what will happen to ships they might build now in the time of crisis when the war is over. Tension runs high and many citizens from non-council species now demand from the council species to prove that they hold their esteemed position for a reason. Many question why they should bow to their decisions in exchange for their protection when it seems that once the protection is challenged they have to contribute to it.

Experts are sure that the situation with Terminus will stabilize once wartime ship production and mobilization take full effect. But given how fierce the Humans fight back it is expected to take at least nine more months before any forces can be allocated back to the hot spots with Terminus. A long time for the lawless to run havoc and profit from the Citadels current weakness."

And thus the war waged on. And while the Admirals commanding the great Citadel fleets on their campaigns to "liberate" system after system got frustrated that the Humans refused to accept any major challenge for a battle. Their supply lines, flanks, patrols were under constant pressure. Seven month after the battle of Crossroads the Humans began to use upgraded nuclear missiles on a larger scale.

* * *

 **Council chambers eight month after Crossroads**

 _Once again Regitus wished that he wasn't by default the councillor responsible for the war theatre. But as a former General himself and with the Hierarchy in overall command of the war effort it fall to him. Not that he envied Tevos who had to negotiate with the associated Citadel members and convince them to aid the war effort without gaining anything substantial from it (rumors said the Batarians even threatened to leave the Citadel). Nor did he want Pizz responsibilities those were likely even more frustrating than his given how little successes the STG had with the Humans so far._

He entered the private chambers of the council.

"Tevos, Pizz, there is no easy way to tell you this so I'll be blunt. The Humans started a counterattack. You are aware of the reports of them using a new missile type with a higher payload. Well so far they only used few of those in each attack. We always suspected that they are going to mass produce them now. It seems they decided to concentrate those they have currently available and attacked our forces in one of the systems we considered cleared and reasonably safe."

He paused for a moment so that his colleagues could let it sink in.

"I'm sure you'll let you STG analysist run over it but as far as we can see this answers the question whether their jump drive is a mere tactical gimmick or a FTL device. Given their extremely low level mass effect tech there is just no other way how they could have reached this system. We controlled all possible discharge points that should have allowed them to FTL using mass effect technology. Given their tendency for guerrilla strikes and the strategic value of System H-331 a fleet of 12 cruisers with full escorts as well as a few forward bases were stationed in the system. All bases were hit by ballistic thermonuclear missiles only few survivors no base remains operational."

Pizz interrupted him.

"FTL capability concerning. But we always were aware that fixed bases are a weakness against them. An updated doctrine with improved missile defence should keep bases reasonable sure. Expensive, slowing us down but still possible."

"I wasn't finished Pizz. We lost 9 of the cruisers and the other 3 are out of commission. Our analysis shows that they increased the payload of their ship to ship missiles to at least 1 MT maybe even more estimates go up to 1.6 MT. Combined with their new mirv and decoy efforts it seemed to be effective in overwhelming the GARDIAN of what we considered so far a fleet of a configuration and size that should be safe. With the new payload we need a much higher intercept rate and can't rely on barriers as strong as we currently do. The hierarchy is currently working on ships designs with better missles defences as well as stronger barriers but for our current forces this means creating bigger fleets and convoys. Adding what we learned about their possible strike range today this not only slows our progress down but we actually have to recall 3 of our 4 current campaigns invading enemy systems."

Tevos couldn't help herself

"By the Godess. We haven't even found a single relay or garden world so far and we have to stop because we don'T have enough shps?"

Pizz answered for Regitus

"Reasonable precaution. It is likley that the Humans can't follow up this strike behind our lines with a full scale counter attack but we can't risk it. FTL jump drive also means searching for relay might be fruitless. Humans could be exploring and expanding space independent of mass effect technology for a long time. Worst case would be the possibility of a gap too big for our FTL to safely cross over. Then Humans would fight from perfectly secure homeland. "

Regitus nodded.

"We need to run simulations how we need to composite convoys and fleets against this new threat. We have to use more of our material into defending our supply lines and the territory we took from them. It will slow us down but it won't stop us. We have plenty of new ships in yard. All of those already designed with improved missile defences. "

Somehow Pizz knew why only three campaigns were stopped. She didn't like to be out of the loop.

"And why wasn't the 4th campaign stopped?

Pizz smiled.

"System H-289 is our best chance of finally capturing Humans and Human tech for a long time. We only could confirm two outposts in the system one mine so small that we believe it has to be the initial stage of resource exploration and a military listening post. It is quiet remote but we think they'll still try some kind of self-destruction once we send in troops. But we'll fool them the fleet is just the show. We'll land commandos, especially biotics. Very effective against the human walking tanks. Even with the Asari we don't have enough to conquer one of their major posts very high loses but a small listening posts we should be able to manage."

* * *

 **A.N. (including Q &A):**

 **(1) Council allowing indiscriminate bombardment is a political mistake**

 **Well they essentially declared a war of extermination against the humans (at least the uploaded ones). Their main concern really was that they made the world inhabitable (and bending/breaking one of their own major accords). Possible later negotiations with the humans or human retaliation is no on their agenda yet. You might also have noticed that the humans did expect this scenario (and even commented that they would do the same in their shoes). So far the humans are relatively relaxed in this war. No soldier lost so far.**

 **(2) Orbital bombardment couldn't clean up Crossroads as effective as it would be necessary.**

 **Given the numbers I must agree. But I stick with what ME canon tells us. If it helps assume that the Citadel fleet hauled a few of the bigger asteroids at the planet for good measure. There may even still be some forces on the planet but, if they are then they are trapped. The planet is effectively out as basis to help the Humans in space operations. And in the end the imperative of the narrative beats any pseudo realism anyway.**

 **(3) The nukes should be stronger issue again?**

 **You demand that a warhead that peaked its development in the 70s/80s should be vastly superior to both offence and defence of a civilization that is space worthy for millennia? Plausibility factor: 0%.**

 **The simple question I asked myself when I considered the Citadel fleet getting whipped out by the first big fighter screen useing their nukes was this: Why wouldn't the Citadel species use nukes, if they are still that effective? Given their tech they of course know how to build nukes and very sophisticated missiles. The only reasonable answer was that GARDIAN in combination with barriers make normal ship to ship nuclear missiles unattractive. We see the result of this thought process during the few instances the humans fire at non optimal ankles and instances (i.e. when the Basestars lured the fleet away). Next to now missile came through then and those that did were harmless thanks to the barriers.**

 **And that's it deal with it. In this story the humans do not own a magical wonder weapon that cuts through Citadel Dreadnoughts like a scissor through paper.**

 **For those who truly can't live with the story this way here how it would have turned out if you had your way:**

" _ **Admiral about two thousand contacts just appeared. Nuclear alarm they …"**_

 _ **The Council lost contact to their invasion fleet. Short time later strange human ships used the relay and disappeared before the blockade fleet could engage. As sudden as the expedition fleet the blockade fleet went dead. Three month later centurions are marching through the Citadel and the Council had to agree to unconditional surrender.**_

 **So story done. You can stop reading from here on. If you need plasma or laser weapons just assume they equipped the Raiders with those.**

 **For the reason why the Raider missles not all have 50-150 MT. I answered that the last AN but I can repeat it. Those would be strategic and ballistic missiles far too big for a Raider. What you asking for is to let a F16 be equipped with an intercontinental missile …**

 **(4) The Humans are based on the Cylon tech from BSG 2003. Hence no big railguns in the front of the ship (what is the front of a Basestar anyway). Cylons used missiles a lot their Basetars don't seem to have Railguns. The Raiders and Heavy raiders have guns they use them against enemy fighters. So far humans won each and every fighter vs fighter battle with ease. Do I really need to mention that those guns are no asset against a capital ship with barriers?**

 **(5) I just have thought about the tech the Humans have and using them in the way X should be really effective. I.e. the very good idea of FTL bombs that move slow after they jumped and thus bypassing barriers.**

 **Well first of all one has to have the idea and get it OKed and then you might need a phase of research, design, etc. And then of course production and deployment. So your ideas might be seen in the future but so far and especially during the battle of Crossroads the Humans had to use what they had and that wasn't tailored weaponry for an enemy they didn't knew of a few weeks ago.**

 **(6) Fleet size of both sides.**

 **The number of Dreadnoughts is given in canon. The three main council species at the beginning of ME 1 own ~ 74 Dreadnoughts. Each associate species can add 7-8 to that number but we already know that i.e. the Volus add 0-1 to it. So I would put the whole Citadel at tops somewhere in the region of 100 Dreadnoughts. One of the limiting factor for the ME races are steep Ezo costs for such big military ships the humans don't have that particular problem. So eventhough their Basetars are in the size range of a ME dreadnought they have a lot more. Given that with their carrier based tactics the Raiders and Heavy Raiders do the most work anyway.**

 **I haven't thought about cruiser and frigate numbers for the Citadel so much. But I would say much more than dreadnoughts. They were free to build as many as they liked of them anyway. The thing is in their battle structure is pretty much like it was during the Napoleon wars so the lower classes had pretty much no chance of harming a ship of the line even as a pack. ME lore heavily implies that the same is true for the dreadnoughts (i.e. the comment how the Destiny Ascension would just rip through the average human dreadnought by the simple fact that it is so much bigger).**

 **Citadel currently learns that one can counter their supreme ship by not challenging it head on but cutting of its support base. A lesson Napoleon learned in Russia.**

 **(7) The Geth**

 **I already explained why they are not on the stage yet. Some of you already realized what route I don't want to go. So let me ask you:**

 **What reasons would isolationist like the Geth have to join the war on the human side?**

 **And no we are both A.I. and must work together is not sufficient. If that would apply organics wouldn't wage war on each other. I'll go into more detail here in 2-3 chapters when the Geth and Quarians become involved (or not involved).**

 **(8) Closing remark.**

 **This is definitely the last time I will answer to overly simplified grievance about how weak the humans are in this Fic. Frankly I sometimes have an issue with how strong I let them come out of it.**

 **I like a story where humanity discovers some crazy stuff and beats the shit out of the Turians/Citadel like the next best guy. But there are already so many of them that you can freely choose what variant you like. This story here explores how things run under different starting conditions than those stories assume.**


	5. Standoff

**Standoff**

 **System H-289 CIC of Admiral Moci's Flagship**

Sashiame was going over the recent reports.

 _The human counterattack is bothersome. But I agree with strategic analysis that this might point to a smaller human force at least in this region. Still she wasn't surprised that the other three major fleets were called back to secure positions. Her operation was far enough from the counter attack and important enough that it would continue. So far everything worked the humans seem to have taken the bait and believe that her fleet has to do its own recognisance. All smaller frigate groups she was sending into the system quickly needed assistance which her cruisers would give. The normal game the humans played of slowing the citadel down and harassing them. But soon the special delivery team would sneak on the enemy listening post when the human forces in this system would be occupied once again._

"Time to lure the humans into action. Give orders to the cruiser task force for the attack on the mining base."

It worked the small group was a target the humans didn't want to refuse but in doing so they left their listening post open. A group of fast transports used the systems asteroid field for cover and then managed to find an entrance point. As soon as the transports started their attempt the main group of Admiral Mocis fleet moved into the system and made direct way for the outpost. The small bait cruiser group instantly withdrawed at the first sign of trouble.

* * *

 **Human listening post, Citadel Commando entrance point.**

Commander Maiza leader of the citadel assault team was one of the first to enter the human station. She took cover behind barriers created by those gone in before her and used singularities and lift on the approaching enemy fighting machines. She began to shout orders:

"Team 1 and 2 expand the perimeter. All others move in and unload the heavy material. Ok remember we move in Teams and each Team that loses either its Biotic or heavy weapon abilities has to retreat to the defences we are going to set up here." The assault teams guarded the area until the rear guard had installed their equipment.

As expected the enemy pushed heavily with their walking tanks but they had choosen their team wisely. Most of them were Asari Commandos with natural biotic abilities and the Turians and Salarians on the team were mostly biotics too. For the first few waves it worked very well the enemy tanks got sucked into singularities or lifted and hovered helpless when their troops picked them up with heavy weaponry. Some technicians used the opportunity to shut three examples of the tanks down and load them into prepared secure cargo boxes in one of the transports.

As expected the humans began to get creative, first artificial gravity and all life support was switched of then the human tanks used magnets and grapples to move and thus make biotic abilities much less effective. The Commandos switched to heavily usage of warp and the drones and skills of their technicians and sentinels. After little time the humans took a more defensive approach relying more strongly on station security. It was clear that the small compartment of the station had lost the resources to fight back.

"Team 2 repots they reached the main power and are now ready to shut the station down."

"Coordinate all units. I want them to advance the minute we take their power down."

With their support from station security suddenly vanished the humans crumbled to the commando unit's ambush. Thirty minutes later the station was taken. Reinforcements and engineers from the fleet that had taken a defensive position around the post were inbound to take the place a part.

"Well done everyone. Secure the perimeter until reinforcements are here."

* * *

 **Admiral Xuan's command centre virtual space**

Xuan was watching the reports from the Capella system (the Citadel calls it H-289).

 _Five dreadnoughts and their escorts now without direct option of reinforcements. A tempting target, even if they instantly withdraw we know the only discharge point the Citadel would still consider safe in range. So we could jump and take it before this fleet gets there and force them into a second battle. As additional incentive this would be an opportunity to make sure Citadel will not take whatever they looted from their listening post. He gave a quick order to his analysts to simulate the needed force for an attempt. He got the results shortly later and made his decision._

"Call of all operations for reclaiming systems due to the current fall back of the Citadel forces. I need all Basestars in this sector to rally in two groups. One in space close to the Capella system and one close to the remaining Citadel discharge point in that area."

* * *

 **System H-289, Patrol Group 2**

En'saga was sensor operator of one of the many frigate securing the perimeter around the captured listening post. Suddenly her console was reporting proximity alarms thousands of them. The humans had come she hit a button to send a ship wide alarm throughout the ship and instantly was connected to her ship's Captain and an operator in the Flagships CIC. The valuable seconds it took to notice Admiral Moci were enough for the humans to fire their first salve. She heard the Admirals order through the speakers of the CIC.

"Call back all other patrols into a close defensive formation. All GARDIAN systems on instant automation we need them to catch those missiles fast. Faster than we could with organic operators slowing them down!"

Most missiles passed their patrol going for the first cruiser line instead but something was wrong about those missiles. En'saga started to perform more detailed scans on the missiles. She was just analysing the results when a new group of enemies appeared much closer in and fired another salve of missiles.

Hasty commands sounded through the ship and com chatter of the fleet.

The new missiles were different that was when En'saga realized it. The first wase was meant to overwhelm the GARDIAN system and the material they left behind when destroyed was hindering their GARDIANs lock up system. She just wanted to inform someone when her ship got hit. She blacked out

"Attention all personnel. Evacuate ship! Proceed to the next emergency transportation device."

Someone was helping her to the rescue capsule. Another frigate picked them up just before they hit FTL and retreated. The sickbay was overcrowded so as one of the more lightly wounded she would have been send to one of the bunks. But as this was a Salarian ship it wouldn't do her a lot of good. So she was now lying in one of the ships floors on a makeshift bed. Her thoughts were raceing but she couldn't get the attention of anyone passing her and drifted of to sleep.

* * *

 **Citdatel fallback position two days later**

En'saga woke up again on the sickbay of an Asari cruiser. She heard that the fleet got ambushed a second time. Of Admiral Moci's brave last stand to ensure those under her command could safely discharge and move on. They lost 80% of their cruiser which were high on the enmy target list. But apart from the Admiral's dreadnought no further were lost. Although the 3 of the four surviving ones were severely damaged and had to limp back to Citadel space.

Still the battle didn't count as a total defeat. They took down or at least severly damaged at least 6 of the enemy capital ships. And most of the stuff looted from the enemy space station made it through. The Admiral instantly realized that the enemy was concentrating on the cruisers and dreadnoughts and ordered the evacuation transports from the post to each seek out a frigate instead of a bigger ship.

She finally could make a detailed report about what she had found out about the human missile tactics. The first wave only locked like a nuclear missile attack but was meant to get the GARDIAN system busy enough that the second can hit. For that they had a nuclear signature but a considerably smaller one were harder to cut through with lasers and were loaded with sensor disturbing dust-like material that would disperse the moment the missile was destroyed.

Her interviewers thanked her for her input and promised that they will look into improving the automatic targeting protocols to react accordingly.

* * *

 **Citadel News Network: We are stuck.**

"The new wave of human counter attacks peaked in their attack on Admiral Moci's fleet while it was performing a campaign to secure yet another enemy system. Only 40% of the fleet ships made it back to secure lines and many of those ships were severely damaged. With one more dreadnought destroyed and three more in need of prolonged repairs the advance of our forces has stopped. In fact it seems many positions considered secured were given up when the fleet fell back to positions relatively close to Crossroads so that they can give each other aid in a reasonable timeframe. With us are Rear Admiral Mursis and Brigadier General Alua. How could this happen?"

Mursis looked into the camera and formed his reply.

"Our forces were thinned out by the large area we had to cover. Thanks to their artificial nature the humans can get something and hold literally any system with ease. They just need energy which the stars and some generators easily provide. They don't need a complicated infrastructure granting them something to breathe, eat or even something as simple as quarters to sleep in. It was obviously a mistake to assume that we can advance so far before our new ship production delivers us the necessary force to secure what we have gained."

The presenter went for the Salarian General.

"Apart from the initial battle our ground forces seem to be out of a job so far. Why the general mobilisation? You are risking riots within the Asari Republics with the proposal for drafting Asari into what is called the great army."

Alua watched the Asari presenter. Likley she was one of those who were against the motion. The Asari high value for individuality above the need for the collective was hard to understand in such dire time.

 _Well I just should be happy that I'm a Salarian. The Turians can't understand it at all. For them Asari groups dareing to vote against this motion are similar to traitors. I don't want to think about how Turians think about those who declared they will boycott drafting even if the motion should pass._

"We need ground forces to secure position. We need to install infrastructure so that we can hold positions better. We need to install defences that can assist patrol and other ships on defensive duty so that we can allocate more ships to actually fighting at the frontlines. The resent counter attack wave also shows an alarming number of boarding attempts which are extremely dangerous given the humans knack for electronic warfare. Biotics have proven to be the most effective forces against the human walking tanks and the Asari population have the most potential for mobilizing great numbers of soldiers with biotic abilities."

The Turian Admiral took over

"We face a massive increase of piracy and slave raids at our borders with Terminus and with the new loses our target to reinforce our diminished patrol forces there have to be pushed back. One possible way to improve our situation there is to massively increase our regiments there and build more bases capable of thwarting of smaller groups of ships. So that area is where a great amount of the newly formed Turian regiments are heading. The Asari should remember what they are preaching to the rest of us all the time. Together we are strong! All we are asked from the Asari is to do their part. That this resulted in a draft motion rather than in a massive wave of volunteers is a matter of internal Asari politics that by tradition of the Council and Citadel others will not interfere with. "

* * *

And so tension ran high throughout Citadel space. Tevos managed to cave the associated governments to agree on upscaling their patrols and ship production so that the three Council governments wouldn't have to call ships back in order to react to the recent increased pressure from Terminus. It came at a cost of course. The most annoying one was given on pressure from the Batarians guaranteeing every associated species that they can keep any dreadnought build in this time of need in service for at least 100 years on top of the dreadnoughts they will be allowed to own when the treaty of Farixen will be active once more.

 _This will lead to instability when the war is over. We can't even just up our number of dreadnoughts to deal with it since that would automatically increase the number of allowed dreadnoughts for anyone. Of course the Turians could just build so many that the smaller races couldn't possibly compete but even they wouldn't be able to do so instantly coming out of a costly war._

Tevos signed there was nothing she could do about it anymore. It was agreed and the only solution to keep Terminus at bay and the option for a new offensive in reasonable time. She linked into the Asari political network.

 _Time to convince the hot headed idealistic maidens and matrons to agree to the draft._

She thought bevor starting working again.

* * *

 **A.N. (including Q &A):**

 **(1) Just finished SOMA. Now I want to write a story about that humanity hitting ME. Such a great game I can only recommend it. Sadly not enough time to do so anytime soon. If anyone reading this is considering writing such a story and wants my input PM me. I won't give my thoughts here in order not to spoiler SOMA for those who still want to play it.**

 **(2) Yes I see that some of you continue to go on about the nuke issue. But I won't go into it anymore. I made my points why the way I present it is at least reasonable. Either go with it or don't.**

 **(3) Your opinions on the effectiveness of Citadel Tech are noted but I don't agree. Canon codex explicitly states space battles can go on for quite some time. That doesn't work with only 10 shots then overheat or GARDIAN quitting to work for a cooldown after 5 seconds. Yes the equipment can and will overheat but it takes time. Problem for the humans without barriers they won't survive an encounter so long against a side that has barrier. So for the time being they'll stick to hit & run. You may have a different opinion on that but then I would counter that the Citadel races would have switched to more reliable tech in that case (i.e. nukes if there were that effective and GARDIAN that easy to overwhelm).**

 **(4) Another one I will answer for the last time here is the question why the humans did not use their tech in way X since it would work so great against the Citadel.**

 **Even for the many instances where the point you made is a good one the humans in this story are not prophets or precons or something similar. Development and deployment takes time. Especially if you have to add a phase first where the humans learn of a possible weak point they could exploit.**

 **(5) Ground combat. Well we had a small one here but this time the Citadel forces heavily relayed on the biggest advantage they (currently) have: Biotics. We'll see more later on but first one side need an incentive to actually use troops again. Once it is a war of extermination between two sides with the capabilities they have just levelling opposition with massive destructive power from orbit is hard to beat. The saying goes: "Those who control the sea control the world." Just apply this to space and you get what is currently happening.**

 **(6) Yes if the humans actually could mimic the radiation of a star up close it would get Citadel ships into more trouble. But even the strongest nuclear weapon we think of doesn't even come close. In fact that scenario just proves my point. Since a ship can operate so close to a star (and it is not a top of the line Citadel military one) they have to have top notch radiation and heat isolation. And since it was linked to malfunction to the barriers the barriers seem to shield heat and radiation of to at least some degree.**

 **(7) Btw. Since most people seem not to think of it: Isolation works both ways. So for the heat build-up inside the ship (from weapon, generators, etc.) to become a problem the isolation has to be very good (and it should to not freeze to death in open space) but corraly that means that heat will have a VERY though job to come in from the outside as well. Especially since any heat source exploding near a ship has vast space of less resistant in an usually at least 180 degree ankle.**

 **(8) We now reached the point where the war truly begins. Both sides are now aware what the other can do and both sides are well into both R &D and war time production. With both initial forces weakened the war now takes a phase that is quiete common for a war of attrition: Boredoom. Both sides are stockpiling and doing recon trying to decide when and were they can go into offencesive again (or trying to predict where and when the enemy will). Don't worry I'll use timeskips for most of it ;).**


End file.
